- Harris, Trump and Biden mark Oct. 7 attacks as US election looms
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street falls
- US judge orders Google to open Android to rival app stores
- On attacks anniversary, Israel fights 'sacred' multi-front war
- Nobel scientist uncovered tiny genetic switches with big potential
- Grammy-winning Cissy Houston, mother of Whitney, dies at 91
- UN biodiversity summit in Colombia aims to turn words into action
- Georgia Supreme Court reinstates six-week abortion ban
- 'Dark day': Victims mourned around the globe on Oct. 7 anniversary
- On attacks anniversary, Israel fights multi-front war
- Mexican mayor murdered days after taking office
- Intensifying to Category 5, Hurricane Milton targets Florida
- Mission to probe smashed asteroid launches despite hurricane
- Biden, Harris mark Oct. 7 with call for Mideast peace
- Dupont set for Toulouse return after post-Olympic holiday
- French rugby bosses tighten discipline after nightmare Argentina tour
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street slips
- Visitors to get rare view of Rome's Trevi Fountain
- Europe's asteroid mission Hera launches despite hurricane
- Man City and Premier League both claim victory in legal case
- Deschamps delight as 'light back on' for Pogba after doping ban
- Biden, Harris urge Mideast peace on Oct. 7 anniversary
- Neeskens, tough midfielder in Cruyff's Ajax and Dutch teams
- UN warns world's water cycle becoming ever more erratic
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street retreats
- Ex-Dutch football star Johan Neeskens dies
- Man Utd battling to improve fortunes, says Evans
- What is microRNA? Nobel-winning discovery explained
- Masood, Abdullah centuries lift Pakistan to 328-4 in first England Test
- Hurricane Milton strengthens fast, threatens Mexico, Florida
- Tunisia's President Saied set for landslide election win
- Barca hoping to return to Camp Nou 'by end of year'
- Trump to open second golf course at Scotland resort in summer 2025
- Super-sub Jhon Duran rewarded with new Aston Villa deal
- US duo win Nobel for gene regulation breakthrough
- Masood hits first ton for four years to power Pakistan to 233-1
- Fritz wins delayed match to reach Shanghai Masters third round
- Naomi Osaka pulls out of Japan Open with back injury
- Weather may delay launch of mission to study deflected asteroid
- China to flesh out economic stimulus plans after bumper rally
- Artist Marina Abramovic hopes first China show offers tech respite
- Asian markets track Wall St rally on US jobs data
- Pakistan 122-1 at lunch in first England Test
- Kazakhs approve plan for first nuclear power plant
- World marks anniversary of Oct. 7 attack on Israel
- 'Second family': tennis stars hunt winning formula with new coaches
- Philippines, South Korea agree to deepen maritime cooperation
- Mexico mayor murdered days after taking office
- Sardinia's sheep farmers battle bluetongue as climate warms
- Japan govt admits doctoring 'untidy' cabinet photo
RBGPF | -1.97% | 58.94 | $ | |
CMSC | -0.53% | 24.57 | $ | |
RYCEF | -1.45% | 6.88 | $ | |
SCS | -0.15% | 12.95 | $ | |
RIO | -0.11% | 69.62 | $ | |
GSK | -0.49% | 38.63 | $ | |
NGG | -1.56% | 65.48 | $ | |
BCC | 1.68% | 141.27 | $ | |
AZN | -0.78% | 76.87 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.09% | 24.79 | $ | |
BCE | -0.54% | 33.53 | $ | |
JRI | -0.76% | 13.18 | $ | |
VOD | 0.31% | 9.69 | $ | |
RELX | -0.54% | 46.04 | $ | |
BP | 0.78% | 33.14 | $ | |
BTI | -0.26% | 35.2 | $ |
From the rear end of a pheasant, Brazil's best coffee
In Brazil, the proverbial goose that lays the golden egg is in reality something closer to a pheasant that excretes coffee beans.
At the Camocim coffee farm, deep in the bucolic hills of Espirito Santo state in Brazil's southeast, jacus -- a type of pheasant native to tropical forests there -- are considered some of the most astute pickers (or rather, eaters) of coffee cherries.
"He chooses the best fruits, the ripest," said worker Agnael Costa, 23, delicately scooping up droppings left behind by one of the birds between two tree trunks.
What goes in as ripe cherries comes out as beans, which can go on to be sold as some of the most delicious -- and expensive -- coffee in the world.
The coffee at Camocim grows in the middle of the lush forest, and the jacus here are wild, eating (and defecating) at their own pace.
"It was this agroforestry system that created the necessary conditions for this exotic coffee to exist here," farm owner Henrique Sloper tells AFP.
Domestically, jacu coffee can sell for 1,118 reais per kilogram (or around $100 a pound) -- a price that can rise significantly upon export. Foreign distributors include British department store Harrods, among others.
- From enemies to allies -
The jacu, with its black feathers and red throat, wasn't always welcome at the farm. It was originally seen as a hungry pest feeding off precious crops.
But when Sloper discovered "kopi luwak," an expensive Indonesian coffee made with beans from civet excrement, he figured jacus might make good allies in the quest to make a better brew.
Kopi luwak sometimes has a bad reputation, with farmers accused of pressing civets -- small mammals similar to weasels -- into captivity to boost production.
The wild jacus at Camocim, meanwhile, roam, eat and poop at their leisure.
"It's 100 percent natural," said farm production supervisor Rogerio Lemke. "The jacu is within its own natural habitat," in Brazil's Atlantic Forest.
Linking production to the whims of a jacu's appetite is just one of the reasons it fetches such a high price.
Jacu droppings look a bit like a cereal bar, with beige grains protruding from a blackish, pasty mess. Once collected and dried, the beans are carefully sorted and hulled, and put into a chilled room.
"It is naturally expensive. There is no way to make a jacu coffee at a low cost," says Sloper.
All told, jacu coffee represents less than 2 percent of the estate's production.
The bird also carries other advantages, both for farmers and those seeking a cheaper -- if less intestinally intimate -- cup of Joe.
"It serves not only as a selector (of the best beans), but also as a harvest alarm" says Sloper. "Where it eats, the coffee is ripe."
- 'Delicious' -
While jacus help select the best coffee, there's nothing in particular about their digestive system that imparts a different taste on the beans.
"The birds have an extremely short intestinal transit time," Ensei Neto, a coffee specialist, tells AFP. "So there is not exactly any kind of biochemical process, there is no time."
Their digestive process is much faster than civets or elephants -- another animal whose dung is used, in Thailand, to produce specialty coffee.
Some think the fermentation process stemming from those animals' longer digestion times imparts a better flavor on the resulting beans.
The jacu "only goes for the ripe fruits," says Neto, producing a coffee with "sweet notes, with good acidity."
"It doesn't add anything else. But the story is good."
The jacus have found a fan in Poliana Cristiana Prego, 37, a Brazilian tourist who has come to visit Camocim.
"It's a delicious coffee and the story behind its production is very original. It's a new experience for us," she says.
"Our customers are lovers of exotic products, but also those who value the idea of sustainable development," says Sloper.
For him, "the future of coffee will come from Brazil," already the world's top producer.
Whether it comes from jacus or otherwise, Brazilian coffee "is showing the world that we really are able to do what nobody else can."
D.Kaufman--AMWN